my favorite day of the year

Today is my favorite day of the whole entire year.  It's the first day of summer - I love the summer - I love the heat!  It's the longest day of the year (yes, I know that's because it's the first day of summer - you know, that whole solstice thing...but to me, those are separate reasons for happiness).  And best of all, it's our wedding anniversary!! Woohoo!

We've been doing the traditional anniversary gift thing...so first year, fancy stationary.  Last year was cotton so I made my honey bunny a quilt (I know, it seems pretty obvious now that I'm writing about it on a quilting blog...but I cannot believe how long it took me to come up with that idea at the time!...)  As soon as I decided on a quilt, I knew I would make this one that I saw on the Purl Bee.  Although I was in love with the bright colors, I wanted it to be something we could use on our bed (so something that would blend with our wall color) and something a little manlier since it was, in fact, a gift for a man.  Just as I was starting to plan my color scheme, we visited friends in London.  That's right, you guessed it - I made my way over to Liberty and drooled all over their fabrics (I turned them drool-sides towards the back before putting them back on the shelves so no one would notice and kick me out of that fabric playground).  I came home with about 6 prints and 2 coordinating solids, then rounded out the rest with finds from my stash and my local quilt shop (some of these I love more than others...but that's just how it goes!).

I pieced and basted the whole quilt in secret, which was really hard to do since it's gigantic...while Chris was in class (1 night a week) or at the gym (1 other night a week) I would quickly pull everything out, work as fast as I could, and then scurry to hide all of my scraps and pins and a whole quilt before he walked in the door...I had a few close calls.  And if you want a nice smooth quilt back, I would not recommend basting 10% of it, ripping it up off the floor, wadding it up in a ball, and then trying to lay it all out again the next time...  As is stands now, there are a couple of things I would do differently...like add more quilting (and make the back nice and smooth...)...but Chris says no - it's his quilt and he wants it to stay the way it is!  So this is it:

Cotton Anniversary

Seriously, it's huge...you can't even see the row of grays on the bottom.  I'm hoping to pull this puppy out again this weekend, hang it over the deck railing and get some pics of the full quilt (any maybe minus all the shadows!).  I know, you would think that over the course of an entire year, I could manage to take more than these couple of photos...but it was living happily on our bed and so we let it fulfill its quilt destiny in peace.  (Lucy does not believe in letting a quilt live in peace...but that story will have to wait for another day...)

Today marks our third fantabulous year of wedded bliss!  So happy anniversary to my twin soul, my one true love! 

Wedding Photos by Making the Moment - these guys were amazing!  Check them out if you need a photographer in the Cleveland area!

I'm looking forward to the next gazillion years of being your ball & chain! (We're going to get REALLY old together!)